DVD Menu Editing

Somewhat disillusioned by the breadth of the pre-canned menu offerings in the "Street" version of Prel 9 and refusing to be held hostage by Adobe's "Plus" offerings, I decided to open up the world of DVD menu editing. I downloaded Chuck Engel's excellent PDF on the subject (is there an updated version to that? - His discussion centers around Version 2, although for the most part, his notations from that version on how to construct menus seems to be quite applicable to Prel Version 9; i.e., the basic syntax for naming the layers hasn't changed).
One thing I noticed when browsing through the DVD menus directory
Adobe Premiere Elements 9 -->DVD Templates --> DVD Menu Name
Is that most of the template structures use the PAL pixel dimension for SD (640 X 575) as opposed to NTSC (648 X 480). Is there a reason for that? There are skeleton templates for all four major formats (SD-NTSC, Wide Screen NTSC, SD-PAL, and Wide Screen PAL) and it would seem, at least superficially, that using the PAL pixel dimensions, as opposed to the NTSC pixel dimensions, would result only in a marginally larger vertical size of any resulting menu developed under those constructs, perhaps inferring that the tops and bottoms of any menus developed using the PAL construct would be slightly truncated.
Of course, if one still used the NTSC text and graphics guides, that would not be a problem. My basic questions is: In the majority of pre-canned menus offered by Adobe with it's base product, most of them seem to use the PAL pixel dimensions for SD as opposed to the NTSC dimensions.
Has anyone experienced difficulties with menus developed under the PAL definitions and used in an NTSC format ... incorrect menu size, strange appearances, etc., and more, why would Adobe package tier product with so may PAL menu templates if they weren't usable in the NTSC environment?
Thanks ...

Continuing ...
It would appear to me that PrEl only needs a correctly named template file in the templates folder. If the syntax of the name is correct, PrEl will attempt to use it. For instance:
An SD NTSC template file name is structured thusly:
TemplateName_formatName_mm.psd
Where format name = ntsc_s; the entire file name being: TemplateName_ntsc_s_mm.psd
The equivalent SD PAL menu would be named:
TemplateName_pal_s_mm.psd
In essence, to me at least, this infers that if the file name is correct, PrEl will present it as a selection option, regardless of what is actually contained in the file. Of course, it must be a valid file type, but I am suggesting here that PrEl will attempt to use any file that is named correctly.
Which means I can develop a file of almost any size (within reason of course), give it a proper name, and PrEl will attempt to use it as a DVD Menu. By extension, I can develop a 16:9 menu, give it a proper name, and PrEl will allow me to use it, even thoiugh it looks crappy.
When I began looking into this, I assumed that when you initially defined your project during the setup phase that Adobe set a flag somewhere in the application that restricted your choices in matters like menu development to only those components with comparable attributes; i.e., if my project is defined as SD NTSC (640 X 480), PrEl will only offer me options with similar attributes.
This doesn' seem to be that case ... I can go in and select any menu I choose, even though its wrong for the format I'm using and it looks terrible.
So as long as I develop my menus with favorable pixel dimensions that compliment the display format, I can name it anything I want, as long as the name has the proper syntax.
Interesting.
An aside ... I have gotten so into this I an strongly considering jumping into the Premiere Pro arean and it would appear the menu system there is somewhat similar to what we are discussing here. Yes?
Thanks again

Similar Messages

Editing DVD menu - discription

I'm using PS CS4 to make a DVD menu for use in PrE4 or PrE8 and can't find a tutoial that defines the various menu symbols - (^^), (=1), ....... etc. Where might I find there discriptions?
Thanks,
RON C

Ronald,
I've got two sources. One is Jeff Bellune's book, Focal Easy Guide to Adobe EncoreDVD 2.0, Focal Press. He covers the DVD-spec/PSD naming conventions thoroughly. Note: there are differences specific to PrE, as it does the authoring in a semi-automatic way, unlike the manual process in Encore.
The other is the "Customizing your DVD Menus, in the Muvipix Learning Center (about 1/3 of the way down).
As noted above, things are a bit different for PrE Menus. First, they are Menu Sets, containing both a Main Menu and a Scene Selection Menu. There are special considerations for both the naming conventions of the .PSD's, but also there are .PNG's, that must be present too, to see the Menu Sets in the PrE Menu Library. The specifics of the PrE Menus should be carefully observed, as they differ from the PSD Menus in Encore, because of that semi-automatic authoring in the Elements program.
Jeff Bellune's book will give you the background on the Layer & Layer Set Naming, but does not cover the differences between the straight PSD's and the Elements Menu Set with PSD's. Jeff covers the mechanics, plus the limitations of the DVD-specs., which are very strict on Menus, especially the Sub-picture Highlights. The Menus in Elements must adhere to those same DVD-specs., plus must also adhere perfectly to certain constraints in the program.
Even with a few run-throughs of the Muvipix tutorial and Jeff's book open besides you, I would strongly recommend that you take one of the included Elements Menu Sets and study it at great lengths. Also, study the folder structure in the DVD Templates Library, and the files that are in each sub-folder. Those are important in Elements.
Personally, I find that building Menus for Encore is simple and rewarding. Most of mine are handmade, or loosely based on the Blank Menu, and then built. I find that the extra work in PrE is daunting, because of that semi-automation used by the program. Also, Muvipix has many additional Elements Menu Sets.
Muvipix is a multi-layered site. There is a forum that is open to guests. There is material (training and functional content) available free if one registers, and more that is for sale on an individual basis. Last, they offer subscriptions, and then everything is free. It did not take me too long to realize that a half-day of downloading more than paid for a subscription. I am not sure into which category the Learning Center material falls, and since I am logged in automatically from all of my browsers, cannot even tell you if it's free, for pay if you sign up, or free to a subscriber. It will be clear, when you enter the site.
Also, the forum there is very active, and many folk do design their own Elements Menus. That would be a good place to post too. The Adobe PrE forum doesn't have as many Menu designers, but there are many good articles there, that would be worth reading. Also, a post there will get quite a few responses.
Good luck, and I'll look for your posts into those two fora,
Hunt

Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 DVD Menu

I read somewhere that I could make a DVD menu, in Adobe Elements for Adobe Premire Elements 10, but I am having troubling figuring out how to do so. Dose anyone know if there is a written or video tutorial for making a dvd template in Adobe Photoshop Elements 10? As that would really help me out, and I'd really appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

The Menu Sets in PrE are very involved, as PrE does a lot of semi-automatic authoring, so things have to be done a very specific way. This ARTICLE links to a thread in the Photoshop Forum, where I discuss the naming conventions, etc..
When on is working with PrE Menu Sets, I have several recommendations:
Only start with, and Save Copies of the Menu Sets.
Keep one of the Menu Set Templates handy, as a reference.
Remember that Photoshop can both create and edit Layer Sets (the structure of Buttons), while PSElements can only edit them, and not create them, unless something was changed with PSE 10.
Sub-picture Highlights (the Button "activation" part), can only be 2-bit, and cannot have any FX.
The Layer, and the PSD naming conventions are extremely important. Those special characters are what make the Menu Set work.
When done, Save into a new folder, withing the DVD Template folder hierarchy, and also do the PNG files, just like the DVD Templates have, so you can see them in PrE.
Good luck,
Hunt
PS - I think that Steve Grisetti covers a lot of this in his PrE and PSE book.

DVD menu title selection on DVD player with DVD's burn from iDVD

Regarding DVDs burned with iDVD 6.0.3, I have burned multiple DVDs with 6 buttons on the main menu page each of which links to a short film. On the menu screen when I push the right arrow button on the DVD remote not all the menu buttons light up. In addition to pushing the right arrow button on the remote, I have to push the up or down arrow button on the remote (to the DVD player hooked up to the TV) to get to some of the buttons in my DVD menu to be selectable. The buttons are arranged by me in a grid sort of pattern. Is there a way in iDVD I can get all the buttons to be selectable using only the right or left arrow keys on the DVD player remote? Do you understand what I am asking?
Message was edited by: powerbookaid

Hi powerbookaid
And welcome to apple discussions. It's actually difficult to find standalone versions on ebay and CL / Apple's FCP and DVDSP. I found them myself but it took me a very long time. Not always something you can do overnight. But if you are very patient something will show up eventually.
If you need something now that works (although I advise caution as in backup your dvd or video_TS first) then consider this app for much less money (donationware):
http://www.mydvdedit.com/index.php?lang=english
Disclaimer: Apple does not necessarily endorse any suggestions, solutions, or third-party software / products that may be mentioned in this topic. Apple encourages you to first seek a solution at Apple Support. The following links are provided as is, with no guarantee of the effectiveness or reliability of the information. Apple does not guarantee that these links will be maintained or functional at any given time. Use the information above at your own discretion.
Message was edited by: SDMacuser

DVD menu in Encore from DVD markers in timeline

How can I use the DVD markers on the timeline in Premiere Pro (thus also in Encore) to build a DVD menu in Encore. In premiere pro 2 where the DVD authoring was included the DVD markers automatically presented themselves as a DVD menu.

I edit most Projects into "scenes" or "chapters," on separate Sequences. In Encore, I usually have one En Timeline per Sequence, or Chapter. However, one CAN have one long Timeline, where the Chapters are deliniated via Markers.
When you say "I cannot get more than one scene in the menu." I am not sure that I am following you. You should be able to have 16, or 32 (depends on the Aspect Ratio of the Menu) Buttons, per Menu (total Buttons), and each linked to a Chapter in your Encore Timeline. What exactly is happening, when you try to link your Buttons to the Chapters?
Good luck, and let us know a bit more, as I do not think that you will need to re-do your Project in PrPro, or probably not even in Encore.
Hunt

Premiere Elements 9 - unable to select a "poster frame" for DVD Menu - Scene Selection

I've tried a number of different DVD menu themes and the problem is the same for all. The Scene Selections don't seem to provide any way to include a graphic for the poster frame. Have been able to provide a menu background with no problem. Interestingly, the poster frame section of the menu edit fields appears to be somewhat truncated (the spot where you would expect the "drag media here" shows only the bottom portion of a box with no wording and the input is truncated at 00;00;0 with the fifth zero partially cut off.
Any one else seen this? I know I've provided graphics for the scene buttons in the past but cannot seem to get past this situation this time.
Thanks

In Adobe Encore (the authoring program, included with PrPro), one can set the Poster Frame for non-Motion Thumbnails.
For showing a different Clip, in Motion Thumbnails, one must create Menus, that have a Video background, that just looks like it has Motion Thumbnails - they are actually PiP in the Video background.
I do not know about the often touted Sony DVD Architect, regarding setting Poster Frames.
PrE's authoring control is a bit limited, and is designed to get the "average" Project authored, with few navigational bells and whistles.
Good luck,
Hunt

DVD Menu distorted on playback and finished copy

The last several projects I have worked on in Premiere Elements 9 seem to have an issue with the DVD Menu being distorted on preview and playback as well as when I burn them to DVD . I noticed it several months ago on a short 20 minute video. The DVD Menu was distorted, fuzzy and the titles were barely legible. The video itself was just fine. It was a standard play DVD … nothing special.
On the next project with the above in mind, I checked the Project Settings and all looked as it should. I started editing and noticed playback was different when viewing clips in the timeline. While playing the clip, the video and graphics looked fuzzy until I stopped the playback. Then the image instantly sharpened and looked as good as I expected. I continued editing assuming I never noticed the difference in this before. I am still not sure whether this problem is related to the DVD Menu or not. Anyway, I created the DVD menu and AGAIN, the DVD Menu looked fine until it is previewed or played back. I even burned a copy to disc and the DVD Menu still looks as distorted and unclear as it does in the preview window.
This is the DVD Menu and honestly it looks worse than this screen shot improves upon it.
I would appreciate if anyone can provide some guidance on what the project settings should be or maybe the playback settings. I am using a PC with a 64-bit processor with Win 7 O/S and 4 GB of RAM.
If there are any other questions I need to answer, please ask them and I will provide a response as soon as possible.
Thanks again for any assistance provided.

So apparently the screen shots I posted in my two posts did not get added.
Here they are;
The project settings;
Thanks again,
Aaron

I would like to create chapters within my footage for Scene selection on the DVD menu

I have edited footage using FCPX and exported it to allow me to use it in IDVD. I now would like to set chapter markers so that the DVD menues allow for scene selection. I believe that I may have to do this in FCPX before exporting it
Can you tell me how to do it.
Thank you

This is one of the most embarrassing omissions in FCP X. There is no proper facility to add chapter markers and export them with your movie.
The way I get around it is to make each chapter a separate project in its own right. I then export each of the chapters and when I bring them into my DVD Authoring application, it's a synch to add the chapter markers (between each file on the timeline) with precision.
As you've already created your project (presumably in one hit) create a new project for each chapter then copy and paste the relevant clips into each 'chapter' project, then export.
Alternatively, you can add chapter markers from within the preview window in Compressor if you have it - but it's quite fiddley and not very precise.
Andy

Is there a 'Play All' option for DVD menu?

Hi,
I was hoping someone can possibly help here... I have created a DVD menu in iDVD with 8 separate movie items each with their own button (with underlined feature), but with no sub menus or additional pages.
Incidentally, these items are home movies, transfered from old Hi8 tapes, edited in iMovie then added to iDVD.
The 8 items have all successfully loaded to the iDVD menu and will play when each item is selected (in test mode).
However, I was hoping to also add a 'Play All' button so that the whole DVD content can be played as one continuous piece if required, rather than being limited to being able to play only individual items at a time and then having to return to the menu page in order to select the next item.
Please can anyone offer any help here? I'm very new to Macs/iDVD etc so simple, basic guidance would be much appreciated!!!
Many thanks,
Robin-UK

Hi Robin
Welcome to apple discussions. I use Toast (personal choice only) in this situation since it has a play all check box. But then you don't get the fancy menus.
Click Here
There is no such check box within iDvd for selecting play all but you can set up iDvd's preferences to address scene selection menus when a movie/s is added. And here's how you do that:
A second option might involve adding the 8 separate movies to the slideshow feature within iDvd for continuous play. And yes you can add photos as well as movies to idvd's slideshow feature with a number of added benefits which I won't go into here. But if you want more info on this procedure just look at a few of Old Toad's prior posts / replies on this iDvd forum.
Disclaimer: Apple does not necessarily endorse any suggestions, solutions, or third-party software / products that may be mentioned in this topic. Apple encourages you to first seek a solution at Apple Support. The following links are provided as is, with no guarantee of the effectiveness or reliability of the information. Apple does not guarantee that these links will be maintained or functional at any given time. Use the information above at your own discretion.
Message was edited by: SDMacuser

Dvd Menu Adobe Premiere Elements 10 for Mac with bad resolution

Hi, I use a MacBookPro with Mac OS X 10.6.8 - Intel Core i5 2,4 GH - RAM 4 GB.
I just purchased PRE 10 version hoping to solve a problem I had with version 9 for Mac but not with a version 7 for Win.
I
My problem is that when I burn the dvd with the final work in PAL system, the menu of the DVD has the text very blurred at a very bad resolution.
I searched this forum and I didn't found a similar problem for Mac user.
I had the same problem with PRE 9.
Same problem if I insert a logo in the corner of the video. Very bad resolution image in the final dvd.
I tried to change the beginning resolution of the image from very low to very high and the result was the same.
Someone has similar problems? Someone did find a way to solve it?

Dear Bill, many thanks for your answer.
This is the Project Preset chosen.
As the source is a JVC Everio with hard disk, I chose PAL - Hard Disk - Widescreen 48 KHz
The source is as I said a JVC Everio in SD size. I saved the files in a backup Hard Disk. They are .mod files.
I don't know how to see if a Menu Sets is HD or SD. I tried almost all the available Menu Sets always with the same blurry results.
These images explain better than words.
Note that the firt image in the DVD Menu is perfect, not blurry. And this add a little bit of mystery :-)
this is the scene selection that has text blurry
And this is the logo I put in the right bottom side of the video. It is blurry. I put a high resolution image and it was blurry. Then I tried with an image .png with the same width of the video (720 pixels) and this is the same blurry effect:
The solution I use in these days to have goog results is very time expensive.
I make the editing work in my mac, without logo and menu. I make a dvd. Then I import the VIDEO_TS folder in my old pc, with my old version of Adobe Premiere 7.0. I insert the logo, I make the menu and then I make a dvd with my old PC and the resolution is the one I want.
Obviolusly I'd like to do all the work in my Mac...
The same problems and solution I used also with PRE 9.0
By the way, I'm using Adobe Premiere Elements in my Mac instead iMovie because I need to do videos longer than 2 hours. And iMovie has this limit.
Many thanks in advance for help. There is someone that is using Mac and PRE 10 with GOOD results?

DVD Menu with Two or More Highlights per Button

I have created a DVD Main Menu in Photoshop CS4 Extended for Premiere Elements 4 as well as editing an existing Premiere Elements 4 DVD Main Menu in Photoshop Elements 6 and run into the same following highlighting problem:
The design of each menu button is such that there is in its Group:
a. the (%) video for the thumbnail of the video (4:3 solid color block)
b. frame to go around the thumbnail
c. Text to go under the framed thumbnail
When I roll the cursor over the button, I want the frame as well as the text to be highlighted. I can achieve one or the other, but not both. I use (=1) for the Text highlight and (=2) for the frame frame, but, no matter what combination or arrangement of layers/layer sets/codes, the result is the same, one or the other (using =1), but not both (using =1 and =2).
Although an Encore DVD Menu creation tutorial suggests that the code species (=2) exists, I have yet to find an existing Premiere Elements 4 DVD Menu where both the frame and the text underneath the frame is highlighted at the same time when the cursor is rolled over the button (showing the =1 and =2 codes or anything else)
I would appreciate any comments on whether I am looking for something that is not possible OR whether I have just not figured out the how to answer.

Hunt,
When you create your DVD menus with Photoshop and Encore as described, can these menus be loaded into Premiere Elements 4 or any other version of Premiere Elements and do these menus work in Premiere Elements 4 or any other version of Premiere Elements?
If I cannot go the (=2) highlight route, I have thought about creating a text layer (for the title under the thumbnail), simplifying (rasterizing it), then adding a the frame to that layer, and then coding the layer (=1) highlight. But, I have not done that yet.
SG
Did you really mean ...., named (%) Highlight....in your suggestions or did you mean (=1). I have been through all the how tos and have a good handle on the conventions, except for this one point.
Thank you both. In the final analysis, at this point it is more a "why can't I" instead of "I have to have that dual highlight" to make the effect work. Thank you both for your inputs and am heading back to the programs to explore your helpful suggestions.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 to create custom DVD Menu

Hi,
I know that starting from EL 11 it is possible through Photoshop EL 11 to create custom DVD Menu starting from scratch.
I fail finding on the Internet proper documentation for both creating it on Photoshop EL 11 and importing/using it on Premeiere EL 11.
I sometimes wish to create a Web DVD to put on the Internet and all I need is a nice background picture and a Play button.
how to do so? Where can I get detailed documentation and vidoes?
Thank you

The only problem that you might have, other than getting all of the naming and structural aspects correct (very specific), would be with the creation of Layer Sets in PSE. I am not sure if they have been added to PSE, and they are necessary for creating the Buttons. As I use Photoshop, and do not own PSE, I cannot tell you whether Layer Sets have been added.
This discussion, in the Photoshop Forum, goes into more detail on creating Menu Sets for PrE, in Photoshop: http://forums.adobe.com/message/2490846#2490846
I strongly recommend that one spend some time with one of the PrE Template Menu Sets, studying every aspect of what is reqired. Even though I create Menus (for Encore), and Menu Sets for PrE, I still will use one of those Templates as a "guide."
Now, if PSE does not yet have Layer Sets, one can still find an existing Template Menu Set, that comes close to what they wish to do, and heavily modify that in PSE.
One thing that trips up many DVD Menu designers, when they start out, is that NO Button may overlap any other Button, even by 1 pixel.
Good luck,
Hunt
PS - if PSE has added Layer Set creation (it has been able to edit, just not create them, for many versions now), please post that information, as it will help me, in helping others.

Creating titles (shortcuts) within the DVD menu

Hi,
Thanks for reading this post.
I recently made a DVD for a client, the dvd was 9mins long and contained 6 different titles within the 1 sequence (main video body). The client has come back asking whether or not i can create a DVD with the 6 titles as options on the main DVD menu for their convenience.
I moderately new to editing/ mac as everything this entails. At the moment i am thinking that i will need to restructure the footage so that the 6 titles have their own sequences which i can then import into idvd individual and burn onto 1 dvd... Is there a much easier way without having to restructure the footage?
Hope this makes sense,
Thanks

You will need to make those 6 different videos into chapters using iMovie, then create a new iDVD project.
I recently made a DVD for a client. I moderately new to editing/ mac as everything this entails
You don't say what versions of iMovie you have, but some or all of these should be helpful to you:
iMovie 6 (and iLife 6) tutorials:
http://www.apple.com/support/ilife/tutorials/imovie/
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iMovieHD_6_GettingStarted.pdf
iMovie 9 tutorials:
http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#imovie
A good guide to iDVD 7 can be found here:
http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/idvd_07stone.html

Can you create a custom dvd menu with Premiere Elements 12?

I am giving this software a trial before deciding whether to buy. Is it possible to create your own custom DVD menu? I understand that you can "download" a template and customize it to some extent. But the customizing does not seem to allow you to delete or add elements, like graphics or menu buttons. I want to be able to delete graphics/menu buttons I don't want, as well as add or subtract buttons as I need for each project. Or, I would like to create a menu from scratch.
Is either method possible in Premiere Elements? Thank you for any assistance.

Kanten
Thanks for the reply.
You can go with a one main menu set up and use main menu buttons. But, note that there are typically far less buttons on the main menu than on the scene menu. One maneuver is to switch the main menu with the scene menu to gain a buttons per page advantage. That is done by reversing the file names of the main menu .psd and scene menu .psd.
At the editing of the .psd level, there is also the choice to add more buttons per page to a scene menu and create text or thumbnail scene buttons.
One of the principles to keep in mind...no one movie in a multi movie Timeline can have its own Scene Menu page.
Of concern....you should have more flexibility than
In any case, I have discovered that I can edit the templates and then bring them into my project. So long as I save them as the same name, Adobe Premiere Elements doesn't realize that anything has changed.
Are you following any one of my blog posts. If so, please let me know which one so I can focus in where you may be overlooking some detail. It is best to work with copies of the original and place them in appropriate folders in the directory structure. In doing that I give the user created menu a new name to distinguish it from the original.
And, in versions 11 and 12, I do not like to save user modified menus in the Online Folder. I prefer the location where the disc menu installed with the program is located. See blog posts.
If your customization does not require the opening of Layer Sets in the Layers Palette of the .psd file (happens under certain plans), Photoshop Elements can do the .psd edit job for you, and you do not have to go to Photoshop CS or higher. There are Photoshop actions that might be used in Photoshop Elements to open Photoshop Layer Sets (as found in the disc menu .psd files), but I will not get into that right now.
Please review and consider. And, then we can go into more details.
Thanks.
ATR

Pixalated DVD menu and flickering credits

I am currently editing a project on Premiere Elements 7. I am having trouble with the quality of the DVD menu. It is pixalated (to the point that some of the text is nearly unreadable). I have also had problems with the resizing the text on the main menu. If I use the drop down box to select the text pt., the changes save fine. However, if I click on the text and resize it using the mouse icon, the changes are not permanent (the text is skewed if I restart the program or burn to disk.)
ALSO, the rolling titles or credits at the end are flickering. I have tried hitting "enter" to render the clip, and have experimented with all of the field options-without success.
I would really appreciate any help!

It looks like someone moved your post to this forum, Evan. Which is where it should be.
That said, I can think of no reason your text should be so pixelated it's unreadable on your DVD menu. At least assuming you're creating your text in Premiere Elements.The menu file is rendered from fonts at full DVD resolution.
The only possible explanation I can think of is that you're viewing this menu at more than 100%. This would be the case if, for instance, you were judging it by how it played on your computer, at full screen, rather than on your TV.
It's also possible that you're judging the quality of the menu based on the menu preview in the Disc Menus workspace. The preview will not show you the actual quality of the output. In fact, it's usually a pretty low resolution view. It's just a preview so you can test the navigation of the disc. Once the program creates your DVD, your menu file will be rendered as ful-quality 720x480 video.

DVD Menu Editing

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